Earlier this year in April, Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco, California signed into law legislation that makes composting mandatory for residents of the city. On October 21st, this law will go into full effect; however, a large portion of the city has already started composting. To implement this mandate, the city government distributed green bins for composting in addition to the trash and recycling bins its constituents receive. The compost is picked up curbside and taken for 90 day processing, after which it is sold to local farms, vineyards and golf courses. If caught defying the law, citizens could be fined up to $100 per violation and businesses up to $500. The law hopes to push San Francisco closer to its 2020 goal of sending zero waste to landfills.
The passing of this law is a step in the right direction and hopefully other cities and states will follow suit. With the United States’ population and consumption rising, there appears to be no end to how many resources can be used and how much waste can be produced. As this is not the case, the longer we put off addressing the problem of excessive waste the more it proliferates. Composting is a great place to start as food waste accounts for 18% of the trash in landfills. With San Francisco being one of the nation’s greenest cities, currently recycling 72% of its waste, it is a great model for others.
This issue is important because with the growing amount of trash produced and shrinking space for landfills, at some point the amount of trash being produced will need to slow down. As the video we watched in class documented in Chester, PA, no one wants landfills near them due to their hazards to health and drinking water as well as their unsightly nature. By making it mandatory to compost, large amounts of organic waste will be saved from decomposing to form methane gas in landfills and will instead be put to use.
Composting provides an effective way to recycle waste, increase soil productivity, and save farms money spent on fertilizers while “closing the loop”. Compost from food products such as crab shells and pasta provide great sources of nitrogen and microbes to nourish soil, much more than compost made of garden scraps would. As one Californian farmer put it, farmers are “using the waste from our vegetables to grow more vegetables," a feat everyone can partake in.
This is a great example of how a local government, in response to economic needs as well as societal input can mandate something that works well for them within their locality. Considering that most of the city was already composting, there was probably very little opposition to the new law on composting. That law may not go over so well here in Blacksburg, since so many people don't even recycle, but maybe here a recycling incentive program would work. There are many different ways communities can work toward sustainability and there cannot be one prescribed effort that can be applied everywhere. Individual cities and towns must look at what is possible in their area and plan from there. This "subsidiarity" works well in developing countries and I think it can work well here in the US too.
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